Sunday, 12 June 2011

The well known story attributed to Marie-Antoinette (although there's no record of it actually being her), Says that when a princess was told that the people are starving because they can't find bread, she responded with "Let them eat cake", which was proof that she neither understood, nor cared about the plight of the poor.

Now when it comes to Egypt, it seems the ruling government in response to the plight of the average citizen, is saying "Let them eat Basbousa"

Now the reason I say this is simple, With so many people living under the poverty line, high unemployment and so many people literally starving in Egypt, It's no wonder people revolted. Hell, it's no surprise that some people revolted specifically for economical reasons.

As far as I've been able to tell, most "Modern" governments don't allow frivolous spending. There's ONE White house in the USA. But In Egypt, with all the panic about the Economy, we're still paying for the upkeep of over Eight different (Known) presidential palaces (How many are secret? No clue.) , Isn't Mubarak Gone?! We can assume that the average upkeep of one presidential palace is at least around 10,000 to 30,000 L.E a month. Not to mention that just one of those palaces (The Sharm Palace that Mubarak currently resides in) is valued at 36 million Egyptian pounds (Although originally bought for 500 thousand only). Shouldn't the people benefit more from these places? If not sold, Can they not be used as touristic attractions? I doubt they can anymore, considered apparently they've been looted of everything of value "Baghdad" style. Then Again, the Military seems to have made "good" use of one presidential Palace (Date and time of the article suggests that Yes, The SCAF were planning to be the "Presidents" of Egypt for a while)

Apparently we're going to have an "Internet Filter" in Egypt, with the usual excuses "Fighting child pornography & terrorism" , But the worrisome part is that they want to ban "Pornographic" websites as well. Yeah, because I totally trust the authorities not to block "Undesirable" websites as well on whim (Like every other Arab country with a similar law have done already), Considering Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Blogs....etc technically can and do contain pornography, they'll be able to legally block them. They claim they're never going to cut off the Internet like Mubarak did, but with a grand firewall, they won't need to. Twitter or Facebook giving the Egyptian Government a hard time? They won't need to cut off your Internet, they'll just "filter" it using their great firewall (you know, like China or Saudi Arabia). Think I'm over blowing it? The same government that said that if they don't fulfill our demands, Not only can we protest all we want, but that they'd join us in the protests, are the same ones that passed the law criminalizing protests. (To quote the current prime minister Essam Sharaf on his day of inauguration : "I will try with all of my heart to meet your demands. And on the day that I will not be able to fulfill your demands, I will be out there with you and not up here." ). Do you honestly think what I'm saying is irrational?

So we revolt, they continue brutal aggression, they lie to us and bamboozle us, they censor the media (to the extent that In our now "Free" media, the term "Ousted president" has been banned, and you can only say "Former president" about Mubarak), They want to censor the Internet and they blame us for screwing up the economy (which the main reason it's suffering? LACK OF SECURITY! Entire TRUCKS carrying products or merchandise from factories or elsewhere are getting hijacked on the highways that the Ministry Of Interior Mansour Essawy claimed they're securing) , while they're still sinking money into bullshit Mubarakesque expenses.

And does anyone care or notice? Nope, because they've done an excellent job of distracting the masses.

Seriously the amount of wasteful bullshit that is being paid for by Egyptian public funds is staggering. Yes I know the numbers might not be "THAT" Big, but they add up, and these are only the numbers that I'm aware of.... what about the rest?

Can this money being spent frivolously be used to either help the people starving, or at the very least decrease our debts?

So ask yourself this, what other bullshit expenses are we Egyptians still paying for?!

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

I rarely if ever, will only just post a direct link to an article, but this is such a good read, and so relevant to my previous post, that it should be read: Middle eastern Muslim or generally a Muslim, or otherwise.